Aging on the Vine

Sommelier Roger Dagorn, shown at Tocqueville Restaurant on East 15th Street, has worked at numerous restaurants in the city.
Philip Montgomery for The Wall Street Journal

By

Lettie Teague

Feb. 21, 2013 9:31 p.m. ET

An average professional athlete is considered old by his or her mid-30s. The same seems to hold true of sommeliers. Indeed, most soms (today's preferred term) leave the floor long before they turn 40. The reasons include the physical toil (climbing cellar stairs, unpacking cases of wine and traversing hundreds of miles of dining-room floors) not to mention long hours, low pay and less-than-charming guests.

Roger Dagorn of Tocqueville and 15 East Restaurant is a shining exception to this incontrovertible rule; he's running the wine lists of two restaurants, and, at 63 years of age, he is one of the oldest working sommeliers in New York.

Mr. Dagorn is a legend in New York wine service—not only for his remarkable longevity but for his generous nature and "dedication to the craft" as Daniel Johnnes, wine director of the Dinex Group of restaurants noted in an admiring email. Mr. Johnnes, a former sommelier, oversees a cadre of young sommeliers at Daniel Boulud restaurants but stopped working the floor about 13 years ago.

Mr. Dagorn joined Tocqueville and 15 East some six months ago because he "wanted to do more" (he was previously the wine director at Porterhouse). In addition to overseeing the two restaurant wine lists, he is planning the wine lists for the restaurants in a soon-to-be opened hotel.

"I wanted to be able to play with multiple wine lists and juggle multiple restaurants," said the grandfather of four, who commutes to New York from his home in suburban Long Island five days a week.

Perhaps the fact that Mr. Dagorn was born into the restaurant business helps to explain his ongoing love for the role. Mr. Dagorn was 9 when his family moved from Brittany France (by way of Canada) to New York and his father opened Le Pont Neuf restaurant on East 53rd Street. Soon Mr. Dagorn was working as a dishwasher, then a busboy, and eventually he was elevated to waiter. "I worked on Thursdays and Fridays all the way through high school and college," recalled Mr. Dagorn over lunch at Tocqueville last week.

When Mr. Dagorn graduated from Queens College with a degree in environmental science he couldn't find a job in his field, but, as he noted, "I was always able to find work in restaurants." Mr. Dagorn went to work as a waiter and later as a sommelier, as he honed his wine knowledge. He officially became a sommelier in 1972 and went on to acquire a list of impressive jobs, including sommelier and beverage director at Maurice restaurant at the Parker Meridien, and sommelier and beverage director at Tse Yang. He spent almost two decades as sommelier and beverage director of the much-acclaimed Chanterelle. (Maurice, Tse Yang and Chanterelle have all since closed.)

Mr. Dagorn also accrued some impressive credentials: Master Sommelier (one of less than 200 world-wide); Best Sommelier in New York; and most recently he was made a Sake Samurai too. Mr. Dagorn is also an adjunct assistant professor in charge of wine service at New York City Technology College.

A small, dapper man whose ties are all purchased by his wife from the gift shop at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mr. Dagorn looks much more like a college professor than he does a sommelier—though he's also been mistaken for the restaurant's owner, or in one recent case, the owner's dad. "Someone asked me if I was Marco's father last week," recalled Mr. Dagorn, naming the restaurant's chef-owner Marco Moreira. "I don't look that old," he exclaimed in mock protest.

How did Mr. Dagorn think most people regarded the job of sommelier? "It's become much more fashionable," noted Mr. Dagorn, who recalled that in the mid 1980s when he was called to jury duty an attorney told Mr. Dagorn that his job was something "you only see on crossword puzzles."

However much things may have changed, the principles of the profession remain the same, said Mr. Dagorn. "When someone asks me how to become a sommelier, I say start as a busboy, then a waiter and learn how to talk to people. Learn about food too because wine is a complement to food—not the other way around."

Not all aspiring sommeliers seem to have heeded his advice or think of themselves as providing service to guests. Or they become "experts" a little too quickly. "I don't think this is a profession you can become expert in overnight. There is so much to know," said Mr. Dagorn, whose quest for knowledge continues.

But there are quite a few young New York sommeliers who impress Mr. Dagorn a lot. He rattled off the names of a few: Michael Madrigale of Bar Boulud; Aldo Sohm at Le Bernardin, Eric Zillier at Gotham Bar and Grill and Pascaline Lepeltier at Rouge Tomate.

For her part, Ms. Lepeltier recalled Mr. Dagorn's encouragement when she first arrived in New York: "I was pretty nervous and my English was terrible but he was incredibly generous with his time and helped me to believe it would be great for me to come to New York." He was, she added, a true mentor. Would Ms. Lepeltier still be working the floor when she reached Mr. Dagorn's age? Probably not, she replied, but only because she hoped to own a vineyard some day.

How had Mr. Dagorn lasted so long?

"Maybe it's just because I don't know how to do anything else," joked the ever-modest Mr. Dagorn, who said he plans to work "at least" until he's 70. "Wine is a great preservative."

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